Bean Bag Recall: Wrongful Death of 2 Children

Ace Bayou Corporation issued a recall of bean bag chairs after 2 children crawled inside and died. A 13-year old boy from McKinney, Texas, and a 3-year-old girl from Lexington, Kentucky, both died after suffocating from lack of air and inhaling the chair’s foam beads. Both children were found dead inside the chairs.

Tragic Wrongful Deaths Could Have Been Prevented

The wrongful deaths of these children could have been prevented. The voluntary standard for bean bag products requires them to have closed and permanently disabled zippers. The manufacturer failed to follow that standard, and these 2 children died. A simple thing like disabling the zippers would have saved these lives, but it was not done.

“Parents assume products they purchase for their children will be safe,” said Fred Pritzker, an national child safety lawyer who has helped many families hold corporate wrongdoers accountable. “But some manufacturers ignore safety standards, and children are seriously injured or killed. We have seen this time and again.”

Bean Bag Chair Recall Details

Ace Bayou Corp., a New Orleans, Louisiana company, recalled of about 2.2 million bean bag chairs after 2 children died. The recalled bean bag chairs have 2 zippers that can be unzipped and opened, including one on the exterior cover and one directly underneath that zipper. These zippers are large enough that a child can crawl inside, get trapped and be suffocated or choke on the foam beads.

The recalled chairs with zippers that open were sold in a variety of sizes, shapes, colors and fabrics. They include round or L-shaped, vinyl or fabric, and are filled with polystyrene foam beads. The colors include purple, violet, blue, red, pink, yellow, Kelly green, black, port, navy, lime, royal blue, turquoise, tangerine and multi-color. The round bean bag chairs were sold in three sizes, 30, 32 and 40 inches in diameter. The L-shaped bean bag chair measures 18 inches wide by 30 inches deep by 30 inches high. “ACE BAYOU CORP” is printed on a tag sewn into the bean bag chair’s cover seam. Not surprisingly, they were made in China.

The following stores sold the Ace Bayou bean bag chairs:

Amazon (amazon.com)

Bon-Ton

Meijer (meijer.com)

Pamida

School Specialty

Wayfair

Walmart (walmart.com)

The bean bags were sold before July 2013 for between $30 and $100.

According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, consumers should do the following:

Check bean bag chairs for any zippers that can open, take those that can open away from children immediately and contact Ace Bayou for a free repair kit to permanently disable the zippers so that they cannot be opened.